March Break is Over!

This year's March Break brought a great deal of heartache to Northwestern. One of our grade nine students, Kasey Pestell, passed away unexpectedly as a result of meningitis. As adults we can all empathize and sympathize with the Pestell family. Losing a great young man who was a son, brother, grandson, nephew, and cousin creates a tear in the fabric of a family that will never be completely mended.

For many of the students at Northwestern, Kasey's passing is their first experience with death and it's an experience that they often can't begin to comprehend. Though many of the students attended the funeral, which is often found to be the beginning of one's coming-to-terms with a death, it was the reality that school started again without Kasey and that life resumed on its previous schedule that really brought home the finality of life. Some students wanted to talk about Kasey, others were unable to do so. Our counsellors and teachers and Diane Ferguson-Brown, our health nurse, will continue to work with our students to help them through this difficult time.

We expect that over the next few years as Kasey's classmates move through high school, the heartache of his loss will begin to fade. He'll always be remembered as the good friend they had in elementary school and in grade 9 who had a ready smile and a zest for life.

Neither the staff nor the students at Northwestern will forget Kasey and we'll continue to look for ways to help his friends and family through these very difficult experiences.

Extra-Curricular Activities Make the Difference

The February and March doldrums don't seem to be an issue for the students and staff actively involved in sports and clubs. This week we were especially active and we had some great success. Watching the students from Northwestern and neighbouring schools perform in Bandarama, you can't help but feel uplifted and impressed. These students are learning to be musicians and are gaining an appreciation of music that will, hopefully, stay with them their whole lives. The day after the Bandarama performance, I walked down the hall and was lucky enough to see part of the Glee rehearsal put on by the drama students and their teacher. Those students, too, were having a great time and I look forward to seeing their next performance.

Competing at OFSAA (Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association) is the ultimate goal for high-school athletes. This week Northwestern students were competing in OFSAA Wrestling in Sudbury; OFSAA Nordic Skiing in Ottawa; OFSAA Swimming in Etobicoke. I look forward to hearing from all of our competitors on Monday. I know that the experiences they had will be a highlight of their high school memories as they move on in life.

Then, on Friday afternoon I was able to watch our Boys' Hockey Team compete against St. Michael's for the chance to move on to WOSSA (Western Ontario Secondary School Athletics). Our boys won the game with a score of 4 to 2. The team was focused and professional in their demeanour. Hockey in Canada and hockey in high school always brings out the competitive nature of players and fans. The coaches of our team said that they truly believed the following philosophy is what made the difference: "Our philosophy was to out work them and out smart them, We ask them to  sacrifice personal glory so that the team could succeed." That's what the team exhibited and what the fans saw. It was a great afternoon.

As I said, it's hard to feel the winter blahs when all around you students and staff are having so much fun while learning.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

I, of course, intended to blog each day of this trip. As usual, we were so busy that a whole week has gone by and we head home tomorrow and this is the first chance I've had to write a note.

Right now the elders of the community and some other community members are preparing a community feast using the caribou they harvested yesterday when they took us "out on the land". They also took us out on the land on Wednesday but that was a day for capturing photos and not for "catching" caribou. We have been treated extremely well here and our students are in love with Cambridge Bay and its people. We already know that there will be tears tomorrow as we leave, even though the Cambridge Bay teens will be in Stratford in just a little over two weeks for the flip side of this exchange.

Cambridge Bay is not for the faint of heart. It's a difficult city to reach and the conditions in the arctic are often harsh. We left Stratford at noon last Sunday and flew to Edmonton where we stayed in a hotel for the night. Twyla and Steve (friends of Paul Finkelstein and fans of the Screaming Avocado) hosted all 18 of us at their house where they served us gourmet dinner made with food we could expect to find in the arctic. We had muskox carpaccio, caribou stew, arctic char and a cafe au lait cake. The food was interesting and delicious, though a few of the students found it a bit too much of a test. The arctic char was the hands-down favourite and that trend continued in Cambridge Bay.

Monday was exciting and definitely a time for bonding. We flew from Edmonton to Yellowknife in the early morning and then waited for our plane for Cambridge Bay which was delayed due to fog. Eventually we did board the plane and flew to our first stop which was Kugluktuk (Coppermine) where we deplaned so that they could re-fuel. We flew from there to Cambridge Bay where we made a dramatic descent through the clouds, saw the lights of the runway and then ascended again and flew back to Kugluktuk. The cloud ceiling was just too low for the pilot to make a safe landing. After 7 hours of travel and 4 hours of airports, we made it back to Yellowknife and our hotel. The students were disappointed and so were we but we were all up and ready the next morning to return to the airport and try again. The weather was still an issue in Cambridge Bay and so our plane was delayed for 3 hours. After a three-hour flight we finally made it to Cambridge Bay by 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Unfortunately, Paul's luggage, Steve's luggage, 2 students' luggage and my luggage did not make the trip. Luckily the two students had put sleeping bags and some clothes in their carry-ons. The people in Kiilinik High School graciously rallied around and brought in some extra mattresses and sleeping bags for us. They also brought warm parkas for us to wear the next day. This is truly a very generous and friendly community.

Wednesday was spent out on the land. We were pulled on sleds called komatiks out onto the tundra. The weather was cold and blustery and the scenery was awe inspiring.

Nunavut Adventure

Tomorrow I leave Stratford with 15 students and their teacher and one other chaperone, for Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. In the past I have attended a few one-day field trips but I have to admit that, more often than not, something comes up and I have to cancel. Last year, Mr. Finkelstein again invited me to be a chaperone and this time I decided to just find a way to make it work.

It seems odd that a principal can just leave a school for a week to go on a field trip. However, for the first time in a very long time, the administrative team at Northwestern is exactly the same as it was last year. This is the third year that Mr. Smith, Vice Principal, has been in the school and both Mrs. Morris, Elementary Principal, and Mrs. Smith, Secondary Vice Principal, are there for their second year in a row. Mrs. Campbell retired two years ago as principal at Stratford Central, and she has agreed to come in for a few days to help out. I am completely confident that the school is in good hands and that this team is more than capable of taking care of the best interests of our students and our staff.

Over the years, our students have travelled across Canada through the YMCA Youth Exchange Program and this trip is through yet another of those exchanges. Their contact information is as follows:

YMCA Youth Exchanges Canada

Has your school group ever thought about exploring other regions of Canada, living in another community, meeting new people, learning Canada’s other official language, or exploring Canada’s cultural diversity? If so, YMCA Youth Exchanges Canada may be for you!

This group reciprocal home-stay exchange program is designed for groups of 10 to 30 participants between the ages of 12 and 17. Participants are twinned with same-age groups from another province or territory, and they take turns staying in each other’s homes for at least five days. Groups involved in outdoor activities can even arrange camp-stay exchanges.

Web: http://www.ymcatoronto.org/en/who-we-work-with/educators/youth-exchanges/index.html

Fall Newsletter 2010

STRATFORD NORTHWESTERN SECONDARY SCHOOL

Newsletter

Enclosed with this newsletter is the first report of the semester. Our first parents’ night is next Thursday, October 21 from 5:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. and will be held in the cafeteria. The format of the evening is “first-come”, “first-served”. It is helpful to bring the progress report to the interview so that you can easily find your child’s teachers. If you would like to speak to a teacher but are unable to attend the parents’ night, please contact the school and we’ll be glad to give your message to your child’s teacher(s). WEBSITE We encourage you to visit our website at http://snss.amdsb.ca Of particular interest to many parents are the teacher web pages. I would also encourage you to visit the “Blog” from Students’ Services where you will find information on college and university visits and other information pertinent to course selection and graduation. ATTENDANCE Regular class attendance is the number one indicator of success in school. When the reports were submitted to the office, we had just passed the twentieth school day of the 2010--2011 school year. There are, of course, instances of illness that cannot be avoided. However, if your child has missed more than three days and has not been ill, we would really appreciate the opportunity to work together to improve his or her attendance for the rest of the semester. If our automated attendance system has not contacted you about any unexplained absences, please let us know. Please contact attendance (519) 271-9740 to let us know if your child is ill or excused from school by you for an appointment. We would also ask that you not excuse your son or daughter from attending assemblies and other special events that occur during the school day. We put a great deal of thought and money into all aspects of your child’s education and these presentations are very much part of that education. As parents, we’ve all heard that “there’s nothing going on and so it’s not important to be in school for special events”, but, let us assure you, that is not the case. COMMUNITY, CULTURE AND CARING AT NORTHWESTERN We are very proud of the contributions that our students and staff make every year to our community and to a variety of charities. Once again this year the entire student body and our staff participated in the Terry Fox Run/Walk to raise money for cancer research. Over the last few years we have raised over $12 000.00 for this worthy cause. Our school, under the direction of Mrs. Congram, also collected tents to be sent to Pakistan to help those rendered homeless by the terrible floods that struck that country in September. In October, the “Me to We” group under the direction of Mrs. Ritsma, will be collecting non-perishable food items for an initiative called Hallowe’en for Hunger. In November our students will be sending care packages to soldiers in Afghanistan in support of “Operation Santa Claus”. In December we will once again be participating in the Stratford High School food drive. We welcome parents and guardians assistance with driving that evening. As this is an evening event, it’s a great way for students to earn some of the 40 hours of community service that they must complete in order to graduate.

CELEBRATING OUR MATH RESULTS Every year all grade 9 students in the province are required to take part in the EQAO provincial math tests. Once again, our results were excellent. In the applied (1P) course, we ranked in first place in the Avon Maitland District School Board: --NWSS had 71% of students at Level 3 or 4 which is significantly above the provincial average of 40% In the academic course (1D), we were second place in the Board: --NWSS had 93% of students at Level 3 or 4 while the provincial average at that level was 82% success. In fact, when you add the 1P and 1D scores together (71+93 = 164) and compare to other schools in the province, NWSS ranks around 15th out of 850 publicly-funded secondary schools in Ontario. Thanks to the students and teachers who worked so hard to obtain these results! BUS DELAYS AND CANCELLATIONS As we head toward colder weather, it is likely that winter weather may cause school bus or school delays and cancellations. The Huron Perth Student Transportation website is still located at www.ourschoolbuses.ca and features RSS feeds allowing parents and students to receive instant notification of weather announcements on their home computers, email program or smart phone. CJCS Radio (AM 1240 and 107.7 FM) also carry our weather announcements. As more than half of our students are bused to school from the country, the most common scenario when rural buses are cancelled is that the school is open for study purposes but no formal classes will be taught that day. SUPPORTING OUR ENVIRONMENT This year we have another exciting project for our school. Our E-Team (Environmental Club) is working with our manufacturing classes and with our physics classes to install solar panels in our courtyard. These panels will produce 6kw of electricity that will feed into the grid. Not only will this be a fantastic learning opportunity for our students, but it will become a renewable energy learning centre for other schools and the community. We are in the process of raising funds for this project and would welcome any donations. All donations to this project are eligible for a charitable receipt for tax purposes. As well, we will be hosting an eWaste drop-off depot on October 21st. If you have any electronic waste that we can help divert from the Landfill, please bring it with you to Parent-Teacher interview night and deposit it in the box in the front foyer. Green Tec of Stratford will be taking all electronic waste that we collect. We have also been lucky enough to secure a day with David Suzuki. We expect that he’ll be at Northwestern early in the new year to speak to our students. SCHOOL COUNCIL MEETING DATES You are invited to attend any or all of the School Council Meetings that we have scheduled for the upcoming year. These meetings are held in the Students’ Services Office from 6:30 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. on the following dates with the following topics of discussion: December 6--Guidance and pathways February 7--Science and Solar Project April 4--Specialist High Skills Majors

our "work-in-progress" slide show is in the link below

Fit to Learn Campaign

The following letter will be sent out next week with our "early-bird" report cards, but I thought I'd post it here so that all community members could also learn about our newest project.

FIT TO LEARN CAMPAIGN
healthy bodies = healthy minds

Every year our students and our staff raise a great deal of money for worthwhile charities in our community and this year is no exception. We have already raised money for the fight against cancer through our school-wide participation in the Terry Fox Walk/Run. We will, of course, continue to support our community throughout the year, but we have also decided to begin a fund-raising project that will directly benefit our own students by providing a modern fitness facility within the school that can be easily accessed by our students on a daily basis.

The emphasis on healthy living choices not only includes making good decisions about what we eat but also getting active. Currently, the equipment in our fitness room is quite outdated. Our staff and students, both elementary and secondary, are committed to updating this room and we have already raised over $6000.00 internally through staff donations, the Students’ Council, the technological studies department, the prom committee and the elementary division for the initiative that we are calling the “Fit to Learn Campaign”. Participation in this campaign is voluntary.

Another benefit of this campaign is that we will use it as a practical learning experience for some of our business students as well as other students who will be assisting with some of the actual renovations.

We are researching a variety of machines and the optimum set up of this room and one thing we have determined is that we would like to purchase new, industrial-grade equipment, and not equipment meant for personal use. Therefore, we will raise the money needed to equip this room rather than ask for community donations of personal-use equipment.

Our first fund-raising project will be a school-wide magazine sale campaign and we will get the information about this campaign to families in our community prior to Thanksgiving when families tend to gather.

If you would like to donate to this project, but you are not interested in taking part in the magazine subscription sale, we would gladly accept any monetary donation. Donations would be made through the Foundation for Enriching Education and donations over $20 would generate a tax receipt.

The attached form is for your convenience only. Please contact me if you have any questions about the campaign.

Deborah J. McNair
Principal